The Task of Penny Wentworth
by Carameltoff
Summary: The distruction of the universe was all my fault, and I want the doctor to know that I am so dearly sorry.
1. Introduction

Some people trust him; some are in love with him. The Doctor certainly prompts the most interesting of relationships and I do not differ in that sense. He is a wonder, a shining glimmer of determination, and that alone is why he triumphs.

Accepts the once. That one time was the most frightful moment of my life, and it was my entire fault. That is why I find the task lain upon my self to say sorry, but its going to take along time. A very long time.


	2. Penny Wentworth

I stretched my arms out either side of me and closed my eyes. I breathed deeply, and stood on the foot I had already placed on the edge of the marble water fountain in our garden. I placed my other foot in front of it as if I were walking along a tight rope. I opened my eyes and a cool breeze that indicated an English summer swept across my face. I breathed it in and lifted my right foot to a 90° angle. Leaning forward I placed my hands in front of my body and swooped gracefully into a forward walk over. I stood up straight again. My weave pumps and elegant summer dress were perhaps not the best clothing for performing such an act, but I moved so quickly that it didn't matter too much.

Penny Wentworth, that's my name. I always thought that it sounds as if thing passing through my parents ingenious minds when they named me was "money". I, in my younger years, thought that it meant I was "worth a penny", my parents laughed and explained to me the increasingly dull origins of the family name.

A small frown crept its way across my pale features as I sat myself down on the edge on the water fountain. I was a beautiful day, for England anyway, so why was it that upon this moment I found myself to be the only one in the gardens? The answer to that question was found only in the fact that my family had "better things" to do then enjoy themselves. Even my twenty-seven year old sister had found herself an interesting hobby that acted as an excuse to hide from the shining sun.

Truth be told, I had never understood any of them, least of all my sister. She would lock herself away from the ever growing world and slowly age away from the rest of us. Not literally of course, but her mind always seemed padlocked and kept away from all of us. I could never recall her having any boyfriends, partners or even friends who knew her as being more than a pretty face (not that she was especially good-looking, there was no doubt that all of her so called "boyfriend" were only after her money). My mother was a lovely person, don't get me wrong! She was cheerful and supportive, as well as an excellent gardener (not that she need do the gardening, as we had enough money to hire one hundred!)! And my father was a real dear most of the time!

That perhaps is why when I met the Doctor I was immediately in awe of him. He was a breath of fresh air, a swan among the pigeons. I have recently come to the conclusion that I was undoubtedly in love with him.

**Ok, so there's the first chapter, Penny is a completely new character, you may like her, you may not. Her sister is very heavily based on my own sister, and it doesn't really matter what I write about her because she's never going to see this! When I tried to tell her about my writing of stories did she listen? NO!!! She had "better things" to do! Any way, Happy Birthday Stephanie! Love you even if you don't listen to me! XP**


	3. How I met the Doctor

Our garden was beautiful to say the least. The roses and archways plated with ivy nicely complement the luscious green grass. It was also huge. The front garden alone was the size of a football pitch placed like a trophy in front of our 1920's mansion. The back garden stretches towards the hill covering a massive 30 acres of land. And I was the only person there at that point.

I sat on the garden bench and propped my head in my hand gazing out towards the horizon. The summer warmth that had, at first, encased the day had faded, leaving only a cold after thought. I shivered. Suddenly, the snapping of a branch caught my attention and my head flicked towards the shrubbery behind me. I couldn't see anything that could have possible alerted my attention in such a manner and was about to give up looking and turn away when a contrasting noise erupted from the shrubs. It differed from anything natural, that I knew of for sure, but there was something earthy about the whirring and strikingly high pitch sound. I stood and made my way, as quietly as I could, to the location of the noise, only for my whereabouts to be announced by the misplacing of my foot. I slipped as I stood on a particularly wet patch of mud in the thicket and screamed as I began to fall to the ground. Just as my head was sure to receive a fairly frightful bash, a strong arm wrapped around me and I was pulled to my feet.

"It's alright, it's alright I've got you!" Said a voice that rung through my slightly dizzy head. I was pulled fully up right and was still holding onto the arm that had rescued me when I came face to face with the man that it was attached to, and my arms rested on his shoulders. Our eyes met and I gazed deeply into his brown ones. I stared up at him for what felt like hours before it occurred to me in a sharp fashion that I had never seen this man before in my life.

"Urm, urh… who?" Was all that I managed to say to the stranger who, it occurred to me at that point, was incredible handsome.

"My name's the Doctor," He said, pulling away from me. I dragged my hands from his shoulders and looked him up and down, "I've come to see to the insulation." From his pocket he pulled a small black wallet containing a single piece of paper upon which it said:

_The Doctor, Barkley's Insulation_

_Est.1954_

_Employee since 2007_

I took the paper from him and frowned curiously "If you work in insulation, what on Earth did you manage accomplishto earn the title "doctor"?" I said, still gazing into his gorgeous eyes.

"It's not a title, it's my name." He said, as if it had not occurred to him that I could have possibly thought other wise.

I felt a smile creep onto my face as I looked at the man's expression. I laughed, "What, that's your name? The Doctor?" I glanced from the paper to him, reasonable amused.

"Yes." He said bluntly, "What's wrong with that?" I laughed again and handed him back the wallet, unable to part my eyes from his.

I frowned again, deep in thought, "We don't have insulation." I said, though we both knew that what I was really attempting to say was "Who the hell are you really, and what are you doing on my family's property?"

"Erm," he hesitated, "Yes, that's erm, why I'm here. To fit it."

"Mother would never get insulation; she says that if she did it would "ruin the character of the house"

"Oh, right, yes. And a very lovely house it is too!" He stammered

"Who are you really?" I asked, trying to deny to myself that I had no doubt developed an extreme liking for the man with no real name.

"Have I seen you somewhere before?" he asked and pulled from his jacket a dainty pen shaped object. He pressed a button and the whirring that I had before puzzled about re established itself in the air ringing through my ears. He moved the instrument up and down as if checking me for something.

"No we have under no circumstances met before, and stop changing the subject!" I ordered, my amazement now turning to slight anger.

"No," he said, switching off the high pitched sound and tucking the object back into his jacket pocket, "You haven't had any extra-terrestrial contact, that's for certain."

"Who is God's name are you?" I shouted.

"What's your name?" He asked leaning towards me.

I recomposed myself and straitened up. "Penny Wentworth." I announced.

A loud roar erupted from underneath the ground and shook the soil, my eye's widened and the Doctor held out his hand to me.

"Penny," he said, "would you believe me if I said that I was an alien known as a Time Lord and that macra had managed to find a way into the earths crust right underneath your garden and that if you want to survive, I suggest that you start to run?

"Probably not." I said, though I didn't understand much of what he just said.

"Well it's either that or the insulation story."

I looked into his eyes, that now looked at me sternly, willing me to use my head but I didn't know what to think, I opened my mouth and thought.

"PENNY!" The Doctor shouted.

"Doctor I-" I began

"PENNY RUN!"

Before I could realize what was going on the Doctor had grabbed for my hand and I took it. He pulled me across the garden with such force that I struggled immensely to keep up. We ran over the many acres of my garden, stumbling and falling, crushing the booming flowers as we raced as far as the eye could see. We reached an arch about seven acres from were we had previously been. The Doctor crouched behind it and pulled me down beside him, his breath shaking.

My hand was still in his and as the roaring started to increase in volume I began to shake. The Doctor looked at me and in an instant wrapped his strong arm around me once more. We sat in silence as the roaring increased. Suddenly the Doctor sprang up and turned to face the direction that we had left in such a hurry. He raised his arm; I could not see his face.

I stood unprepared for what I was about to see. A crab, about 40ft high dominating the scene before my eyes, its pink coloured hard grisly shell wider than my house. My mouth hung open; I took a step back as a million thoughts pounded through my mind.

Within the Doctor's raised arm was his instrument with which he projected the violent high pitched sound and the ground shook with such violence that I was knocked from my feet.

As I fell backwards there was no strong hand to catch me, I just fell. I knocked my head on the marble pathway and everything went black.

*********************************************************************

Humming. That was the sound that I woke to, a low gentle humming. My eye lids flicked open and I raised myself to a sitting position. Glancing at the sight around me, I only had a second to take it in. I was lying on a rather shabby cushioned seat. I swung my legs around and settled them lightly on the floor beneath me. A grated metal covered an endless tale of wires and cable the likes of which I had never set my eyes on. I stood; unsure of myself I made my way to the peculiar pillar that seemed to be producing the humming. I ran my hands along the coral like material that sectioned of into six pieces, almost like a cake. Just as I was about to place my hands on a paper weight like object on the framework a shout echoed around the "room".

"Aha!" Shouted the Doctor who strode into the room clutching what seemed like a handheld screen which he then attached to the coral like table.

"Got it!" He shouted, "Come over here." He said to me. I moved to his side cautiously, whilst replaying the moments that lead me up to being here. I had just recalled falling when he pointed at the screen in front of us.

Upon the screen was what appeared to be a plan of a house. My house! The walls floors and rooms were all printed onto this screen. But the image did not stop there, it grew and soon I was looking at a blueprint of the pipes and water systems beneath the mansion.

"There," said the Doctor, "a build up of gas underneath the house. Perhaps your Mother should consider insulation after all. You see the macra feed of gas, if one macra happened to land here hundreds of years ago then the minuet a good supply of gas built up he would call his chums. Before you know it you've got a whole civilization of them feeding from your pipes."

"What, so those things, the crabs, the Macra, they are living underneath my house?" I said, struggling to keep up with his rants and insane science.

"Deep, deep underneath the house. You've seen how big those things are, they're living in the mantle of the earth, close to the crust. They've been fine until now, but now there overpopulating, soon there going to spill out onto the earth's surface. That's why I'm here; I sensed the vibrations a mile off and headed to the source right away. All I need is a way into the house, then I can stop them."

"You need to get into the house?" I asked, trying me best to follow him.

"Yes, preferably down to the pipes, or the control panel for the gas."

I looked at him and took his hand. "Come with me."

I pulled him out the garden and turned around. I stared. A box? I moved forward and placed my hands on the wooden frame, it wobbled in my hand. I moved my hands across the woodwork feeling right the way round it my confusion ever growing. A slipped my head back through the door and gasped. It was bigger on the inside! I stepped out of the box and turned to the Doctor who had up until that point been watching me with a smile on his face then spoke.

"What do you think?" he said, with a smile.

I smiled and shook my head, "You're amazing!"

"Yes I am!" He said grinning at me. "Come on!" he said, grabbing my hand yet again.

We made our way to the house hand-in-hand, which took a good fifteen minuets. After a while, the Doctor started to talk to me.

"So how old are you then Penny Wentworth?" He asked, saying my name as if it were a new word to him.

"Twenty next November." I said, "I'm trying to get into a university, of course that won't be hard, what with my Father's money. I don't doubt that I shall be going in less than a month."

"You know it's funny, you. The upper-class English are something of a rarity now days. Classes were pretty much abolished decades ago."

"Well, we appear to have survived. Even if it is by bashing down everyone above us." All of a sudden, I began to feel guilty of my status, the price of my name, my heritage. I felt like all that I had was stolen goods.

We were silent for the rest of the walk. When we came to the entrance of the house I placed my hand on his chest so as to stop him.

"Wait," I said, "what are you going to say to them?"

"Insulation?" the Doctor replied.

I shook my head, "No, don't my mother will go ballistic! I'll say you're a friend of mine."

"Will she believe that?"

"Probably not, but she's hardly going to assume you're and alien with the intention of tempering with her gas is she?"

"Good point Penny Wentworth, good point, I'm impressed!"

I opened the door cautiously, and stepped in to the front hall, not making a sound on the shining marble and granite checkerboard floor. I hadn't taken two steps before a shrill scream rang throughout the hall.

"PENNY!" It shouted, "WERE HAVE YOU BEEN!" The face behind this bellowing soon came into full view; my Mother ran down the spiralling steps, her heels clapping against the stone.

"Oh, my Penny!" She started to whimper, "My darling! Where were you? I've been looking everywhere! That earthquake, my goodness, and here was me thinking you didn't get them that strong here!"

Her eyes fell upon the Doctor and I stammered to introduce my newly met friend.

"Mother, this is the Doctor, he's erm, he's…" I struggled to find the most plausible words, "He's my boyfriend."

I froze. Having no idea where the words had come from my eyes widened. They had just poured from my mouth like water from a tap! I looked down at my feet when the Doctor's astonished eyes fell upon me.

"Your boyfriend?" My Mother asked.

"Erm… Yes." I struggled out.

"Oh." All of a sudden my Mother appeared immensely pleased. "Incredibly mice to meet you Doctor- what was it sorry?"

"Oh erm, just the doctor!" He smiled and shook my Mother's extended hand.

"Right then, well I'll leave you two in peace then!" and with that she strode out of the room.

There was a silence. A silence as awkward as silences go, the sort that would have had Clint Eastwood wondering when it was going to end.

"Erm…" I laughed nervously, "I erm…. Well I…"

"The gas?" The Doctor interrupted me.

"Yes! The gas, yes, follow me." I said, relieved at the awkward but quick change of subject.

We briskly walked through the airy open room, through many other rooms to the cellar that no one goes in, not now anyway. I opened the door with the help of the Doctor and we entered into a dark, musky, cold mess of pipes and tanks. The Doctor ran over to a small computer panel and got out his instrument once more.

"What is that thing?" I asked, following him into the piping.

"It's a sonic screwdriver." He replied, without stopping what he was doing.

"A screwdriver?" I asked in astonishment; I didn't know much about tools, but enough to know that was not an ordinary screwdriver!

"A _sonic_ screwdriver."

"Oh," I said, not quite understanding, "What does it do?"

"Erm… Everything." Said the Doctor, still busy at work.

I moved over to him, standing by his side, looking at him. It was then that I began to think. His face was about thirty years old, alien or not, he certainly appeared to be a young man. But his eyes, however gorgeous, were without doubt far older than he. The burned with wisdom and knowledge, and something far greater than that. He was like my guardian angle, soaring in to save me.

"How old are you?" I almost whispered the question.

He stopped what he was doing and looked at me, his eyes deep as ever.

"Nine hundred and seven." He said, and I knew he was telling the truth.

"Wow. You don't look it." I joked.

"Moisturizer." He said.

I laughed. Suddenly the panel started to make an irritating sound, and a siren started.

_Alert. Alert. Please leave the building. Alert. Alert. Please leave the building._

"What's happening?" I shouted over the noise.

"Yes!" The Doctor said, a smile stretched across his handsome features.

"That's good?" I asked, partly confused.

"Oh yes. That's very good, very good indeed! I've poisoned the gas, injected oxygen into the atmosphere under the earths crust! I've poisoned them all!"

I smiled and stared at the Doctor, next thing I knew I was in his arms for the third time that day. He hugged me and lifted me of my feet, spinning me round in the air.

"Ok, that should be enough." The Doctor said, using his sonic screwdriver to stop the siren and, presumably, the gas.

"So Miss Wentworth," he said, turning to face me, "do you honestly have that much patience for university? I always found them quite dull."

"I'm sure if it means me getting a degree, I'll manage." I smiled

"Are you sure? Because I'm fairly certain I can think of something you might prefer doing instead." He said.

I frowned, and he smiled back at me……

So that's how I found myself travelling with the Doctor, all around the wonders of time and space, all around the beautiful universe. Around a universe that wasn't going to be there much longer thanks to me….


	4. The sparks of something strange

Six months can fly by, and that's exactly what they did. They say time flies when you're having fun, and I was having the time of my life! I saw the most astonishing things! The beauty of the universe is incredible! Super novas, black holes, I've seen them all! Or so I thought.

We'd just got back from the 1950's and I was exceedingly excited; never mind the creation of the universe, guess who'd just met Marilyn Monroe! She wasn't at all like all of the stereotypes; she was a reasonably intelligent woman. The Doctor just strolled in with his psychic paper and called himself her "councillor". I tied to persuade him to stop her committing suicide, but of course his "fixed events" nonsense always appears to cover his troubled mind. I sometimes think that it is he that requires the councillor.

My life with the Doctor so far has been brilliant. I love him. There's no doubt about that, and there's no use telling me that he could never love me back; I know that. Sometimes I feel that he is capable of love, he is capable of all emotions and he has finds no shame in showing it, but I feel that he doesn't trust himself to do so. Even if he did, whether he would love me or not is unclear; I know from what he has said that there have been others before me. Not that I mind, after all, I have had boyfriends before loving him, and if thought is put to the subject, it's the same thing really. But know the only question that lingers in my mind is this: _will_ he love?

I don't know. I don't envision that I ever will know. But I can hope.

I don't see our travelling as a date, or that he asked me to travel with him because he liked me in that way. I know that he was lonely, and only needed company. With him it is difficult to tell, I suppose that's aliens for you!

I was in the TARDIS; we weren't going anywhere in particular, so all I was wearing was a white blouse, blue knee length skirt, and white plain flat pumps. The Doctor was sorting something or other and I was having the sort of day when you are so away from the world that everyone keeps asking you what wrong. There was nothing wrong, of course there wasn't! How could I be happier when I was with the man (or Timelord) that I loved? I could see why the outside world might have thought that there was though; I was drifting. It's the sort of feeling when you wake up at the crack of dawn, and don't really know why you did. Like when you are going out somewhere, and end up going the wrong way, then when you try to remember where you were going, you can't remember. It's neither good nor bad, not that it mattered to me either way in that state.

It was then that I said something I thought I'd never say. "Can we go to the end of the Universe?" I asked, turning to look at him.

The Doctor looked up, an expression that was so confused that I would have laughed if I was in the mood. "Why would you want to do that?" He asked me back.

"Erm…" I said, turning back to look at the empty space that I had previously been hypnotised by. "I don't know… I suppose, I've seen how it started, it would be nice to know how it dies…" I replied.

"Would it?" The Doctor said, this time with a look of surprise spread across his handsome features.

I frowned slightly, still looking straight ahead. I turned to look at the Doctor's still astonished eyes and said nothing…

It the Doctor who finally broke the silence, shaking his head and looking back to the control panel of the coral growth.

"Nah!" He said, wrinkling his nose, "been there before, didn't like it much. Utopia, Professor Yana, Master and his wife, end of all humanity. Don't think you'd like it to be honest!" He turned grinning at me, and I just stared at him with the same fazed expression on my English face.

We were silent for a while.

I've seen super novas, black holes, stars exploding and Marilyn Monroe. I've seen the most terrible things in the universe and the best. But at that moment, I thought the end of the Universe would be the most beautiful thing ever.


	5. Whispers and Kisses

**I'm upset ******** I haven't had any reviews so far :'( I certainly hope that changes! Anyway, here's the next chapter:**

"I love him."

"I _love _him!"

I repeated the realisation countless times in front of the mirror as if I expected him to suddenly requite my powerful feelings. The reason that I was emphasising every syllable of the poisonous sentence to myself was so that I could finally stop having mental arguments with myself on the subject. I had come to a certain situation in which every time the Doctor spoke to me, I paused for considerable amounts of time to consider what to say. I had decided that was enough of all that nonsense. So I repeated myself yet again to the reflective surface.

"YOU LOVE HIM FOR CHRIST SAKE!" I screamed at my reflection, pounding my fists upon waxed wood beneath my palms.

"Who are you talking to?" The shattering voice of none other than the Doctor entered the atmosphere.

I froze. Thundering blood pumped through my ears. Oh Goodness! Had he heard? Had my confections leaked their way within the earshot of the one they were intended not to?

"Are you OK?" He said. It was then that I realised that in the act of pondering what I wished not to be, I was ultimately making the situation far worse.

"I'm fine!" I said, forcing my voice to remain natural (with hardly any achievement) He smiled puzzlingly at me, and I found my self staring.

His smile. So simple yet so entangling. And intimate! Oh I wanted to melt right there, with a thousands songs singing in the most intricate depths of my heart. The harmonizing tunes that were whispered across to my ears from his warm eyes. I felt as though my soul was pouring out to him, shouting, yelling, _screaming _for him to just turn his head! Open his eyes and accept the truth that was my love for him, and him alone. But I realized that would never happen, and cold water of realisation lapped at my hope, washing it away. Sadness blew out my lightened features like a candle in the dark. So that's where I was then was I? In the dark? No. I was the one in the _light! _I would make him see, no matter how hard I had to work, he would see that he loved me!

"Are you _sure _that you're OK? You don't look it!" He reasoned with me. I looked at my feet and laughed lightly to myself.

"Penny? Penny are you alright?" He moved towards me, we were inches apart. "…Penny are you…" He faded off as I looked into his eyes. His silence affected me just as much as his voice. I saw it in his eyes. The want, the longing that he attempted to fight off. The mental barrier placed by his own free will all because of what he thought he should and shouldn't do. Hatred reared up inside of me. He wouldn't give into what he wanted because of some lost girl with the name of a flower that I'd always thought to be far too cliché! Rose. The very thought of the way she looked made me sick! Nevertheless I tried to imagine. Blond probably, not that I had any reason to think that of course. Blond, tanned, blue eyed? If so I was none of these. My complexion was what you might to describe as typically English. Dark, dark brown hair, almost ebony. Pale skin lifted only by the hint of a few freckles, and olive green eyes. Not the usual green you might see, but dark, rich and perhaps a little too complex for the average guy. But let's face it; the Doctor was hardly the average guy!

I pushed my fiery anger aside, though it struggled intensely. I bravely raised my hand to the side of his face and placed it gently on his skin. He gazed at me with his intriguing eyes. I stoked his face cautiously, and moved my thumb down to his lips and whispered a touch. I traced the outline of his lips and felt him breath strongly against my sensitive skin. I leaned towards him ever so slowly and rested my forehead against his, our noses pressed together, before I slowly placed my lips on his and hinted at a kiss. It was ever so slight, and I was so delicate and concentrated so much. And yet that slight movement was enough to make him jerk away from me like a lightening bolt had soared through his body.

"I erm, I should really be getting back to the TARDIS." He struggled to say. He looked at me and laughed nervously and turned his back on me; bolting out the room as fast as he could. I sank onto the ice cold flaw and wept. Damn that Rose to hell!

**OK Penny isn't really meant to be a very likable character, so it doesn't matter if you hate her already XD I want to really explore emotions with this fanfic, really experiment! XP Hope you like it! Please review!**


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